The present invention relates to a seal ring having tapered surfaces adapted to make a seal between a first and a second members having annular surfaces to be sealed, the annular surfaces being opposed by each other to form therebetween an outwardly diverging annular gap, and also to a sealing device having such a seal ring.
Hitherto, there have been used various types of sealing means for effecting a seal between a pair of members one of which makes a rotation relatively to each other, e.g. a housing and a rotary shaft supported by the housing. The simplest form of such sealing means is a sealing device having an elastic member such as an "O" ring or an oil seal made of rubber or an equivalent elastic material and adapted to make close contact with two members by its elasticity. The sealing device made of rubber or the like elastic material has been broadly used due to its simple construction and good adaptability to the portion requiring the seal. However, due to the characteristic of the elastic material, this type of sealing device cannot be used under severe conditions such as high temperature and/or pressure.
For this reason, a sealing device constituted by metallic rigid member is used in place of the sealing device having a sealing member made of rubber or equivalent material for a seal under a severe condition such as high temperature and/or pressure. In this type of sealing device having a metallic rigid member, the sealing function as performed in the sealing device having a sealing member made of rubber or the like by the flexibility and elasticity of the sealing member itself cannot be expected. Therefore, this type of sealing device inevitably has a complicated construction employing a plurality of parts. Namely, the sealing device having a metallic rigid member must incorporate an elongated spring member or an additional part having a complicated and minute shape and construction and made of rubber or the like elastic member, in order to ensure a good contact of the sealing member with the surface of the rotary member. This inevitably renders the construction of the sealing device complicated to require a high grade technique in the manufacture, resulting in a raised cost of manufacture of the sealing device.